Activists seek sharp swords in human rights battle

Dec 9th, 2013

by John Donovan. 

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Human rights organizations were bitterly disappointed when the United States Supreme Court rejected legal claims made by the family of Nigerian activist Barinem Kiobel against oil multinational Shell earlier this year. Kiobel and eight other activists had been sentenced to death and executed in 1995 for protesting against oil extraction in the Niger Delta. The plaintiffs in the case had accused the company of colluding with the Nigerian government in the activists’ deaths.

Human rights sometimes suffer when companies extract oil, mine the earth or produce cheap clothing. When those affected take the matter to court, they often have little hope of compensation or support.

• Date 09.12.2013
• Author Jennifer Fraczek / sad
• Editor Nancy Isenson, André Leslie   MORE HERE

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

THIRD YEAR A

BEFORE

                                                         

AFTER first attempt 8dec13

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

NUGGETS OF CREATIVITY

Thanks Paul, Linda and staff.

GREENPEACE, from Dr. Amy Moas

Take action now and help stop the destruction of Indonesian rainforest by corporate greed. Every day, Indonesian rainforest is being destroyed and replaced with palm oil plantations. Laying waste to what little is left of Sumatran tiger habitat. An organization called the Consumer Goods Forum has the power to stop it. But they need to hear from you. The Indonesian rainforest is disappearing at an alarming rate — pushing species like the Sumatran tiger and orangutan to the brink of extinction. It’s a familiar story. The destruction has been going on for decades. But it’s no longer just the trees that companies are after. It’s the land. Many palm oil producers are bulldozing Indonesian rainforest at a rate of acres an hour to make way for even more palm oil. And that palm oil ends up in products from companies like Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal and Colgate Palmolive. These companies share something else in common. All are part of an organization called the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) that could require its member companies to stop buying palm oil linked to rainforest destruction —completely transforming the palm oil industry.   The CGF made big changes like this to protect the environment before, but not until the public demanded it. To make this happen, we need to generate massive public pressure. Greenpeace is launching a campaign to do just that. We need your help sending 75,000 message to the CGF by December 10th. Take action now and tell the CGF to require that its over 400 member companies commit to stop buying palm oil linked to forest destruction. Momentum is already on our side. There has never been a better moment for the CGF to demand change. After strong campaigns from Greenpeace, some of the CGF’s most well known members, Unilever and Nestle, have made commitments to stop buying dirty palm oil. Just last month, even the makers of Nutella decided to end deforestation in their supply chains. But saving the Sumatran tiger, orangutan and all the amazing creatures that call the Indonesian rainforest home is going to take something more. For the palm oil industry to change, its best customers — the members of the CGF — must demand better. Send the world’s largest organization of palm oil customers a message today, demanding that it require its member companies to end their part in deforestation. It may be the best chance we have to save the Indonesian rainforest. Time is running out. The palm oil industry has become the number one cause of forest destruction in Indonesia. We have to act before it wipes out the only remaining Sumatran tiger habitat on Earth. Palm oil is an important part of the Indonesian economy and is responsible for millions of jobs. It can — and must — make a genuine contribution to Indonesia’s development. What it can’t do is destroy the future for its people, its wildlife and the global climate on which we all depend. Backed by a growing movement of supporters demanding clean palm oil, we can push the palm oil industry to make that change. It’s a strategy that we know works from experience. Thanks to people like you, this April the largest pulp and paper company in Indonesia committed to stop rainforest destruction. Together, we will win this campaign too. Please take action today and help us send 75,000 messages to the Consumer Goods Forum by December 10th. For the Sumatran tiger. For our climate. For all of us. For the forests, Dr. Amy Moas Greenpeace Senior Forest Campaigner P.S. There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in the world, and palm oil produced on their destroyed habitat is being used by major companies worldwide. Take action now to demand the Consumer Goods Forum tell its member companies to end their part in rainforest destruction.
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Greenpeace 702 H Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20001 | 1-800-722-6995

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SANDY HOOK PROMISE

Friend,

One year ago, 20 first-graders and 6 educators were torn from Newtown in one unthinkably violent moment.

People talk about the emotional scars we bear after a disaster or loss, but that implies we've actually healed. For many of the families who lost loved ones last December, the wounds are still raw and may never go away.

For those of us at Sandy Hook Promise, we're committed to turning our tragedy into transformation, and making sure that this time, there will be change. And we're doing that by building a community of people united in our love for all children. United by love, we can rise above our differences to bring about the changes we all desperately want.

Will you show your support and join us by adding your name to our card promising to Parent Together to end gun violence in our communities?

Click here to sign our card now – because united by love we can accomplish anything, even change that seems as hard as this.

Hundreds of thousands of people like you have put aside their differences and joined our community of people who agree that our children's safety comes first. That in itself is transformation, I can promise you.

I'm more committed than ever to being a part of that – to make sure tragedies like ours never happen again. Will you join me by signing our card today?

Thank you so much for your support. It really means the world to us.

Sincerely,

Tim Makris
Executive Director
Sandy Hook Promise

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

SAVE THE ARCTIC

Greenpeace campaign leader

How did two of the biggest oil companies in the world team up to exploit one of the remaining pristine ecosystems on the planet?

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

PHOTOSHOP ONLINE ASSIGNMENT 1

                      

                               buensuceso_ps1_online_sop       

  

                FEELING  EXPRESSED IN ABSTRACT

           

                       STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

As Picasso once said, " I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.", it is on this same gesture, that  I am inspired to get my foot ahead of another, walking, moving searching for knowledge or in other words, to come to school to learn.  

Although I am struggling and almost always lost while trying to learn each lesson, these did not discourage  me but  keep  me on coming back. 


On this first assignment  I immersed myself into the concept that in order to learn the art I should think like a child, meaning as a child I should have a very receptive mind, no prejudices nor inhibitions.  I should say how I see things as what they really are,  black is black,  white is white.  I should say that the king is naked though he is believed by old folks to be wearing his new clothes, as a child from once upon a time asserted.

buensuceso_ps1-online

On this assignment, I used a great deal of the following tools : brush tool, rectangle tool, ellipse tool, polygon tool, line tool, gradient tool. I discovered how layer is created after every image or object  I draw.  I manipulated color changes using the color swatches.

Exercises such as this one has positive results on my proficiency on photoshop not like during the jumpstart classes, where I easily forget techniques when not really obliged to do exercises using them. Somehow,  though lost many times, I could follow each step while doing techniques with the instructor, but without the follow up exercises, I tend to forget most of them if not reinforced with follow up exercises.

I am sure that I am successful with the result from this assignment on account of my feeling that I am better now in photoshop than I was yesterday and expect to be better  in the days to come.

 I enjoy doing this assignment.

Antonio L. Buensuceso Jr.

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

PHOTOSHOP CLASS ASSIGNMENT 2

                  buensuceso_ps2_class

                           PHOTO RESTORATION 

                  

                        STATEMENT  OF PURPOSE

BEFORE RESTORATION

Photo restoration works like magic and the artists on photo restoration like magicians are crafty individuals. As magicians take out doves out of their pockets and convert pieces of trash papers into real dollar bills right in front of spectators eyes, it is in this great astonishment, admiration, respect that I inclined to bestow on photo restoration practitioners.

No wonder that both professions deliver joy, excitement and awe to their respective audiences on every spectacular performance. People young and old alike got impregnated with notions, that becoming a magician or a photo restoration artist is a worthwhile profession. So, many indulge themselves doing calisthenics honed toward being a successful one.

This brought my classmates and myself here. However, for the time being focus should be turn to the means of achieving those glorifying ends. Means like what I have passed through are really "painless" and "joyful". Yes, it is painless and joyful when one welcomes constantly faced with mazes and puzzles to accomplish work and most often got lost in the process and just silently laugh at himself out. (Or, cried herself out.)

Back to the project on photo restoration, I gather some pictures for the project.  Among them is a class picture way back 1971, a grandma picture ten years ago and some three from Wikimedia Commons.  I chose one from the Wikimedia, a picture of a priest named "de Manila",oldest, I thought .

Practically,  I tried all those pictures as for exercises purposes and proceeded with my chosen project.

I cropped out the picture to remove the text portion of the image because text is not allowed to be included in the project. I used some techniques  and tools in photoshop like marquee tool, lasso tool, magic wand , move tool, crop tool, zoom tool, color , swatches pallette, brush pallette, options pallette, layers and layer masking etc.

On the question on "How successful you think your finished product is?" ,

I chose to answer on the positive. I am successful in the sense that it prepared me to face for mightier challenges ahead. 

Thank you very much.                                    

                                               

                                               

                                               

                                                 

Antonio L. Buensuceso Jr.




The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Illustrator Online Assignment 1

                        buensuceso_ai1_online

                                                       Pen Tool

                                          
                                                STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

source image

At the first glance learning the pen tool, or illustrator in a broader sense for this matter is not really fulfilling, in fact, honestly, very frustrating. First time users of the pen tool will be amazed by the exciting figures, shapes he could create with every drag and clicks of his mouse but discouraging and frustrating on the other side of the argument in the sense that though it could create some images, but those images, are images which  starting enthusiasts would not want to create in the first place.He wanted to draw something but the pen tool is making something else, very horrible and exasperating.

However, as time passed by, when the artist gained control of the pen tool, meaning the shapes and figures that resulted on every move and stroke of the pen tool is what he intended them to be, it is on this point that one realized a fool he was, had he not continued taming the pen tool.

TRACED IMAGE SILHOUETTE 

On the project, I do not wanted to be biased about it. There are still some imperfections, which  I need to address by more practice, nevertheless, I believe the image on the silhouette is real me. My daughter took this picture and I placed it in Photoshop and saved as 72dpi, jpg image, then placed it in Illustrator and locked layer and used this as a template. I traced the silhouette of my photo and added the text "iSwear" 
to it.

I swear, the Pen tool wont wear one down as it first appears to be.

Antonio L. Buensuceso Jr. 

                                            




The TRUTH will set you FREE.

ILLUSTRATOR CLASS ASSIGNMENT 2

By Matisse

                buensuceso_ai2_class
                TRACE FAMOUS ARTIST ARTWORK
                                   

                            STATEMENT     OF     PURPOSE

By Matisse

        As I browsed over the gallery of artwork from where we are asked to choose one for this project,  Pablo Picasso was the artist whose work had greatly attracted me to deal with. I have been inclined to study artworks by Pablo Picasso as I thought of the word Picasso is a person with a joyful and comic personality as his name sounds like "Payaso" meaning clown in Filipino, the Philippine language. A week before the exciting random drawing of lots of who is to be assigned to each one of the forty artworks, Picasso's numbered 8 artwork had given me the groundwork on what I could expect doing this project. I tried it, then, came to realize, Picasso was not "Payaso" (clown) after all, I could not afford to laugh but express sighs of relentless frustrations. His  painting color texture and gradient combinations are illusive   and scared me fitted for the Halloween.

 

Artwork by Picasso

        So when the random drawing of lots called me to choose, I chose  not Pablo Picasso but a simple looking number 25, by Henri Matisse. This one would be easy as I contemplated while we are given a chance to select an artwork during that time. However, like Pablo Picasso's number 8,  Henri Matisse's number 25 is equally intriguing. I constantly agree to writer, Shelley Esaak, when she wrote that Matisse's works are characterized by big blocks of bold , vibrant colors, and a deceptive simplicity. She added farther, Matisse and Picasso are probably the two artists who had the greatest influence on the course of 20th century art. Yes, deceptive simplicity is the term aptly described  Henri Matisse's numbered 25 artwork. He made his paintings in a manner looking effortlessly naive, where unsuspecting art enthusiast would render the art piece as easy as eating peanuts. This reaction is what Sir Henri Matisse purposely wanted his audience to exude. From the words of Sir Henri Matisse, he himself said, "I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have the light joyousness of springtime, which never let anyone suspect the labors it has cost me...".

     Moreover, he said, "What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art which could be for every mental worker, for the businessman as well as the man of letters, for example, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue."  I,  being an audience, there is no doubt Henri Matisse achieved his intentions to provide me a soothing, calming influence on my mind something like  a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue but I, being an artist, while doing the trace of his painting is like having an armchair slump upon my shoulder. I could feel the burden these artists loaded upon their shoulders while producing their own masterpieces.

      Anyways,  I took pride in having the chance of tracing his artwork as this exercise exposed me to know my handicaps and learn ways to overcome them. Later, when others or myself would be able to copy Matisse's number 25 in all its entirety,  it is paramount to remember that aside from his art, he had his wisdom to share in his own words, "Exactitude is not the truth." .

        Thank you very much.

         Antonio L. Buensuceso

                   ORIGINAL   IMAGE                                                  TRACED  IMAGE             

The TRUTH will set you FREE.